Megan Matthews, Special Education and John Calvert, Technology, Quaker Ridge

Innovation Incentive Awards 2016-2017

Digital World Language Portfolios

Jose Toscano

Scarsdale Middle School

1st Century STEM: Roman Weapons of Math-Destruction

Jonathan Hansonbrook

Edgemont Jr/Sr High School

Digital Mindfulness Toolbox

Sima Cass, Jeanne-Marie Castiello, Elliot Cohen, Michael Pincus,

Scarsdale Middle School

Development of Self-Regulation Skills in the K-1 Classroom

Janelle Brown, Edgewood and Jennifer Turetsky,

Heathcote

Movement Enhanced Learning in First Grade

Jim Borgia and Ann Cotty,

Heathcote School

Engaging Physics Students with a Tactile Approach

Vanessa Blood, Robert Draper, Michael Egan and Joseph Vaughan

Scarsdale High School

Talking Teaching

Natalie Farina, Jodi Giroux and Kathleen McGreal

Scarsdale High School

Innovation Incentive Awards 2015-2016

Exploring Complex Processes in the HumanitiesMaggie Favretti

To purchase Little Bits in order to teach Harvard’s Project Zero “Agency By Design” thought routines. Teaching these thought routines using Little Bits helps humanities teachers to teach complex concepts such as grammar, analysis, and public policy in a simple and fun manner. By observation and experiment, students can figure out multiple ways the bits can go together in a sequence to do various things. Once students have had plenty of time for recording observations and analysis of the Little Bit circuits they have made, they can much more easily visualize the structure of an argument, or the ways that parts of a society fit together, or the relationship among parts of the government, or the parts of a sentence in English or Mandarin.

Cucinare AtelierKathleen Fox and Lin Fleisher

To combine the love of reading and literature with the love of experimentation and cooking using books such as the Amelia Bedilia series & Mystery (June Jam / Cam Jansen and the Wedding Cake Mystery, etc.) and sometimes recreating recipes highlighted in the stories. In learning how to read, interpret, respond to and rewrite recipes, students will expand their vocabulary and create their own memories and connections to story. Students will also incorporate science and experimentation into these lessons (“Edible Science” by National Geographic).

From the Fit Bit to Google Glass, wearable or e-textile technologies are at the intersection of technology, electronics, physical computing and aesthetics. As Scarsdale looks to pull students into engineering, computer science, MakerSpaces and design, wearables are one way of attracting young women, a group that is traditionally underrepresented in the STEM fields. This grant would allow us to buy materials and explore their capabilities. We would then write curriculum around these new technologies, as well as bring these technologies to faculty through STI courses and workshops. Wearables are an opportunity for us to attract young women into the engineering field and ignite their passion for technology.

Building a Universe of Kindness

Michelle Gould, Linda Fisher, and Trish Serafin

The purpose of Kindness Matters, an interdisciplinary learning experience for Butler eighth grade students, is to promote a healthy sense of self and a safe middle school environment. By understanding, accepting, and reflecting on their developing identities, students will better be able to embrace with empathy and kindness the unique differences of others. Our goal is to benefit the students and to enrich the school community.

i3DErik Holvig

This project will teach students important elements of design and to explore 3D object creation on iPad using an app called 123D Design. Students will have the opportunity to print their creations, have them displayed in a gallery and ultimately take them home. Each elementary school now has 100 iPads, which will allow this project to take place on a large scale. The possibilities and future designers this project might spawn are exciting to ponder!

Based on the principles of STEAM Education we would like to develop a unit that will explore the connection between Greco-Roman Art/History, with Mathematics. This new sixth grade unit will unite abstract concepts of mathematics and the concrete historical aspects of social studies affording students the opportunity to make real world connections. Making history and mathematics come alive for students is a key part to not only their engagement in learning, but in inspiring students to become critical and creative thinkers. For many years educators have taught mathematics as an independent subject with little or no real connection to the outside world. This leads to students becoming disenfranchised and struggling with the fundamental elements of mathematics. Through this interdisciplinary unit of study students will be asked to question the world around them, and engage in discussions that focus on how math is relevant outside the classroom.

STI INNOVATION INCENTIVE AWARD RECIPIENTS 2014-2015

1. IMAGE, SOUND, AND STORY

Denise Del Balzo and Cara Hiller, Scarsdale Middle School

-To introduce a new learning framework in collaboration with Jacob Burns Film Institute that enhances students’ visual literacy skills and strengthens analytical thinking using short films, photographs and other types of media while deepening students’ appreciation of themes such as identity, the danger of a singe story (stereotyping, assumptions, bias), membership in a group (insider and outsider), and tradition versus progress.

2. STAND UP FOR LEARNING

Pat Kuschman and Diane Rakoff, Greenville Elementary School

- To research and implement an innovative design change for the classroom by incorporating alternative workspaces for students who are not “sit down and work” learners but may need to channel their energy while standing up in a workspace more conducive to their needs

3. PLANTS AS THE LENS: TAKING CHOICE SCIENCE OUTDOORS TO THE SMS GARDEN AND CAMPUS

Kristin Martin, Scarsdale Middle School CHOICE Program

- To develop a yearlong research project in which students examine structures, cells, and evolutionary trends as they monitor garden and campus plant growth and soil quality and link weather conditions to food growth and sustainability

-To promote cooperative learning between the elementary and high school levels by having high school students learn iBook Author and share their findings with their Greenacres counterparts.

5. EXPLORING TIME-LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Erik Holvig and Karen Pelekis, Greenacres Elementary

-To research the uses of time-lapse photography as a tool to help students tell a story, understand sequence, and visualize how nature, the classroom, and even they, themselves, change over time.

STI INNOVATION INCENTIVE AWARD RECIPIENTS 2013-2014

1. APP ACADEMY

Elyse Tenzer, Scarsdale Middle School

-To immerse seventh grade CHOICE students in an entrepreneurial environment that challenges them to design, build, and publish apps that connect to the service learning initiative at the Middle School.

2. CATHERINE ROAD STREAM: SCIENCE RESEARCH

Kristin Martin, Scarsdale Middle School CHOICE Program

-To develop a year-long action research project in which students monitor and assess the water quality of the Catherine Road stream on the SMS property with the goal of creating presentations to the Scarsdale community showing data over time that are indicators of stream life and possible contaminants.

-To integrate the history and music of the Depression era based on research and assessed through student composition and performance of 12-bar blues pieces using iPads and Garageband that demonstrate human response to environmental, economic, and personal disaster.

6. FACTA AUT FICTIONES: CREATING HISTORICAL FICTION IN LATIN 2

Jonathan Hansonbrook, Edgemont High School

-To use primary Latin source material in translation as a means to integrate factual evidence of the ancient Greco-Roman world into fictional narratives in the form of short stories.

7. GAMIFICATION IN THE ELEMENTRY SPANISH CLASSROOM

Aimee Lepe, Quaker Ridge School and Alyssa Scala, Fox Meadow School

-To translate the Clue board game language into Spanish in order to promote student conversational aptitude and to align with the elementary classroom curriculum.

8. IMPLEMENTING DESIGN PROCESS

Nicola Minchillo, Scarsdale High School

-To design an independent study project within the Senior Options Program that applies elements of the Stanford School of Design Process within a tutorial setting and that guides students through the investigation of a topic of interest and the presentation of a model TED Talk.

9. iTUNES U IN SCARSDALE

Erik Holvig, Heathcote School

-To enhance the Scarsdale schools’ presence in iTunes U by creating an online site that will showcase model student work for staff and community.

10. USING DIGITAL TOOLS TO ENRICH SCIENCE CURRICULUM

Karen Pelekis, Greenacres School

-To re-design and enrich the first grade Plant Life Cycle study through the integration of digital tools.

STI INNOVATION INCENTIVE AWARD RECIPIENTS 2012-2013

1.DIGITAL TINY TRAVELERS

Diane Anda, Cathy Manin, William Yang - Greenacres School

-To introduce first graders to global studies using digital technology applied to a popular geography curriculum strategy, the Tiny Traveler, whereby students research international sites and symbols and post their findings for the class community on a website and interactive map.

2.DIGITAL WRITERS WORKSHOP IN THE SECOND GRADE

John Calvert, Jennifer Cheung - Quaker Ridge School

-To create a digital publishing center for Quaker Ridge second graders that integrates technology into the Writers' Workshop curriculum.

3.DIGITAL BUDDIES: CROSS-AGE PEER MENTORING AND APP CONSTRUCTION

Mitch Crasson, Katen Pelekis, William Yang – Greenacres School

-To arrange cross-age mentoring between first and fifth grade students for the collaborative creation of eBooks and apps in a study of classical myths that joins literacy, content area studies, and technology.

4.ENCOURAGING PARENT/STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Rose Farrell, Vivian Sonnenborn – Greenville School

-To encourage parent/child participation in academic projects outside the classroom through shared learning experiences focusing on the fifth grade social studies program in both general and special education studies.

5. TAKE ME WITH UKE

Kathleen Fox, Jeremie Peace - Seely Place School

-To enhance the development of musical literacy in second graders - harmony, chords, group singing - while integrating the arts, language arts, social studies, and creative play through the use of the ukulele, an appropriate instrument for young children.

6.DIGITAL LANDSCAPES FOR CREATIVE PLAY

Kristen Martin - Scarsdale Middle School, CHOICE Program

-To engage Middle School CHOICE students in the design and construction of a dynamic art installation using digital and physical media that includes a light projection atelier for the Reggio Emelia curriculum in the Edgewood school.

-To develop an interdisciplinary and cross grade level unit of study integrating math and art for 2nd and 6th grade student partnerships as they research famous people and create artistic representations for display.

Scarsdale Public Schools

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student's full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an interdependent world.

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